POLYANDRY (Gr. polys, many, andres, men, husbands), a marital relation subsisting between one woman and several men. Poly andry is found to exist in primitive and bar barous peoples in every age and everywhere. In antiquity we have the testimony of Hero dotus for the prevalence of this custom among the Scythian peoples Agathyrsi and Massagetz and the Nasamones, a people of northern Africa near the Greater Syrtis. A like report is made regarding the people of Libya by Aris totle, by Diodorus Siculus regarding the Trog loditz and the Ichthyophagi on the coast of the Red Sea, by Czsar regarding the inhabitants of Britain; Polybius finds unmistakable traces of the •institution even among the Spartans. Till but a little while ago these reports of an cient authors were held to be abnormal and exceptional, for it was assumed that the primor dial family had everywhere its origin in the marital relation of one man with one woman (monogamy) or of one man with several women (polygyny or polygamy). But the re ports of modern travelers concerning the mar riage customs of barbarous and uncultured peoples prove that among them polyandry is universal or at least usual; it is found in Mala bar, the Marquesas, in New Zealand and throughout all the Pacific isles, in North and South America — in short, wherever mankind has not risen above a certain stage of social culture; nor is it confined to totally unculti vated peoples; to cite one example only, it is a legitimate custom among the Tibetans.
Usual y, but not always, in the Tibetan polyan dric family the joint husbands of a woman are brothers, and the elder brother is credited with the paternity of the children, while the other brothers are uncles. It is the report of travel ers that the female head of a polyandric family enjoys a measure of consideration and author ity very unusual among barbarians; in some tribes it has grown into a real sovereignty. The universality of the custom is proof at least that over against the patriarchal family and descent through the male head of a monogamous family must be set the matriarchal family in which descent is traced to the mother; and that gynmocracy is of equal antiquity with patri archy. Spencer, in his mentions several curious forms of the relation, each con sidered an advance on its predecessor, as (1) one wife has several unrelated husbands, and each of the husbands has other unrelated wives; (2) the unrelated husbands have but one wife; (3) the husbands are related; (4) the husbands are brothers.